Originally Posted by HumanWiki
I'm betting that most people yammering on about 'ring times and how it handles on a road course would go four wheels off on any hardcore track.. There's a lot of difference in driving hard on the street and driving it around a track.. I took mine around Road America not too long ago and as many people there said, it is in fact a ridiculously crazy track.. It is multiple 1/4mi tracks bonded together with multiple elevation changes, very sudden/fast 90° turns in to blind hills/corners, the pretty much 270° turn, etc.. It chews up tires, brakes, rotors, fluid and drivers.. I can tell you that running 149MPH and watching a sharp turn walk up on you will really pucker your anus and make you pray to the god of brake.
The fact of the matter is, that the large majority of races in the US will be light-to-light and/or 1/4 mi... They're what this country does primarily, it's what most people I know do and it's also the cheapest entry.. Road Courses in our area are 200-400 entry fees, where as the drags are 40.00ish.. Big difference there.. You also don't have near the worry in the 1/4 mile with taking your car in an off-track excursion like one does when there are high speed turns involved and more than 1 other car on the track with you.. There's also the matter of not needing to worry about upgrading parts on your car to help it stop fast and repeatedly without fail while traveling very fast.
Also, it's been proven that 'ring times aren't a sanctioned, rule abiding, consistent between vendors build out test to show exactly what it does.. There are plenty of instances of what most would call number fudging by tire shaving, extreme non-street alignments, etc. by various vendors that don't accurately portray the ability of what you get off the lot.
There's also that thought of... well, let's face it.. How many of you, not in Europe, are going to ship your car (and your rival) to Germany to have a grudge match vs. how many of you are going to red-light race, 1/4 mi race?
Yes, I know it's the overall performance of the car that's being tested on that particular track due to its demanding design and length.. But.. How many of you are seriously going to push yours to that limit in things not a straight line? In my local area, I'm one of a small group that does push the car just as hard in a curve as I do in a straight.. But, we are certainly not the majority.. and, I promise if you go about spouting 'ring times at a drag, you'll get laughed at.. and, if you go about spouting drag times at a road course, you'll get a "so? you did that only once? we do that 5 times per lap"
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